Martha Graham Dance Company, « Snow on the Mesa »

It was cold and lightly snowing the night I went up to the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance on East 63rd Street.

In a basement rehearsal room folding chairs had been set up along the walls. A school bench placed in the middle of the floor was being used as prop, and a dancer was waiting against an exercise bar.

The calm assembly of dance scholars and serious writers made me feel slightly out of place : not only do I know very little about dance, but I’m always in fear that a live performance will extend to an inhuman length of time, like contemporary art videos almost always do.

But I was struck by the beauty of the piece, and hypnotized by the grace and intensity of the dancers.

They performed excerpts from « Snow on the Mesa », a dance choreographed by Bob Wilson and premiered in 1995 after Martha Graham death, and originally subtitled « A Portrait of Martha ».

It turns out to be no time at all when I had to extract myself from this « Cave of the Heart », to return home, enlightened, by the subway.

a nice report and beautiful pictures! i saw martha graham yesterday at the rose theatre and it was my first experience with modern dance. and i loved it! the dancers, the stage design, the lights….everything was perfect! had a great evening!